Posted: 2011-06-13 12:34 &nbsp
For quite some time players and the development staff have queried the usefulness of fleets outside of the obvious bringing together of players, the forums, and various communication facilities; and whilst those are all marvellous things, there has always been a deep wanting for more depth for fleeted players.

Now whilst you most likely won't see many of the things I'm going to talk about in this blog in the next patch, I figured it'd be nice to fill you in on something that I've been working on over the past week. Bear in mind that everything is still up in the air as far as design goes, and the level of integration with the game might be slow to start at first – but it's the thought that counts, right?

Ok, enough beating around the bush... A few of us on the development team have wanted to implement some form of fleet level for a while, allowing players of a fleet to contribute towards improving the fleet in ways other than skill and activity level. And with the integration of the credit system last year, it was decided that we'd allow players to donate credits to the fleet, allowing them to upgrade their fleet and allow them access to better facilities both in and out of game.

Ideally, the plan was to have fleet creation cost credits (you'd still be free to join any fleet you wished without cost) and have it so that members could donate credits to the fleet. Once the fleet has a certain amount of cash in its kitty, one of the fleet's admins can choose to upgrade the fleet, increasing it's stature by one level. Upgrading the fleet will allow you to have more members within your fleet, increasing the amount of members who can donate to the cause. However, each level increases with cost. We'll also be moving the forum creation over to this, so instead of creating a forum when your fleet has x amount of players – your forum will be created if your fleet is at level x or higher. There will also likely be an option to allow players to purchase a forum before this, but at an increased cost.

So that covers what you get out of game, but what about in game? How much integration we provide in game is heavily debated at the moment, but we're already looking at allowing members of fleets with higher levels access to highly altered weapons (not more powerful ones, however), as well as options to use special command modules on the command ships that lower levelled fleets, or unfleeted players wouldn't receive. We are also considering allowing players extra storage space in fleets that are of exceptionally high level. We might even let you have little insignia's next to your name to indicate that your fleet is especially prestigious!

“Wait, command modules?”, I hear you say. That's right, we've finally decided what to do with command ships, and I don't think you'll be disappointed! The command ships, at some point in the future, will be receiving command modules that give all ships in their, yet to be decided, range certain boosts. These boosts will likely not be huge number changing additions like enhancements, but rather small increases to various areas of the ship (defence, offence, speed and thrust, regeneration, prestige gain, and resistances to name but a few). The aura's will likely not stack the same type to prevent any issues with ships becoming too powerful, but we will, most likely, allow you to mix several aura's to allow you to increase your fleets effectiveness.

Unfortunately I have no ETA on when these two systems will likely be making it into release, but I can tell you that I'm already in the process of integrating the web interface for giving fleets credits and allowing you to upgrade your fleets level. We are still at the design stage for both of these, with the aura's still in debate as to how exactly we want them to work, but I figured you all deserved a little bit of juicy information concerning what we have planned for after the next version, since you've all waited so patiently!

Posted: 2011-06-13 14:10 &nbsp
Any chance of being able to donate prestige to level a fleet as well as credits? Obviously with less effectiveness, but it'd give people who no longer care about prestige something to do with it aside from accumulate it to climb the rankings.

Or even have the forum creation tied to prestige, and the in game stuff like the modules and emblems tied to credits, with fleet leveling being a mix of both.
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Posted: 2011-06-13 16:45 &nbsp
sounds interesting, looking forward to seeing it. so what about fleets that r allready in the game.and something that might also b kl is tags on our ships some where. like our siggs when we leave posts but one type for all ships of that fleet. just a thought.
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with a fleet having an easier time collecting the credits due to having more players. It promotes banding together, which is something that I'd like to see. Each level will increase in cost over the last, along with the number of member slots in the fleet. Member count will have no bearing on the cost of the levels.

If you disband the fleet then the credits die with it. I might look into making it so that any remaining credits get spread among all players in the fleet. However, this will not include credits spent to upgrade the fleet for obvious reasons.
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Posted: 2011-06-14 12:28 &nbsp
I would rather that credits in the bank have to stay there*. We could consider it a donation made to the faction government – the more you donate, the more you get back in turn. If the fleet gets disbanded then this is lost permanently. I would also want to lock fleets to a given faction under this system as you are gaining representation with a given government.

As Jack said, existing fleets would be grandfathered in but would be treated as if they were level 0. They would retain their forums and would keep their currently number of members, although no new members would be able to join until the fleet is of sufficient rank. This also means that if members leave, they will be unable to rejoin until the requisite rank is achieved.

* Any other system would be open to abuse by fleets getting members to donate, and then disbanding to steal a portion of those credits. Or by a fleet admin withdrawing credits in their own account.

Posted: 2011-06-14 17:15 &nbsp
Do you have any idea about the number of credits you are talking about? Such as if I want the people in my fleet to get that extra garage space how many credits will that require?

I prefer smaller, closer fleets to the big ones but the amount of cash I can sink into DS is limited.
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Posted: 2011-06-14 21:36 &nbsp
i agree, make fleets have a greater purpose and all, but dont take away features we already have, especially credits, we should not have to pay real heart earned money for a fleet on a game, i mean really?
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On 2011-06-14 12:28, Mr Black wrote:
I would rather that credits in the bank have to stay there*. We could consider it a donation made to the faction government – the more you donate, the more you get back in turn. If the fleet gets disbanded then this is lost permanently. I would also want to lock fleets to a given faction under this system as you are gaining representation with a given government.

As Jack said, existing fleets would be grandfathered in but would be treated as if they were level 0. They would retain their forums and would keep their currently number of members, although no new members would be able to join until the fleet is of sufficient rank. This also means that if members leave, they will be unable to rejoin until the requisite rank is achieved.

* Any other system would be open to abuse by fleets getting members to donate, and then disbanding to steal a portion of those credits. Or by a fleet admin withdrawing credits in their own account.

would it be possible to make is so atleast another fleet admin has to ok any withdraws?
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